Dutch prosecutors: Russia wants to thwart MH17 investigation

A Dutch prosecutor said Tuesday that there are "strong indications" Russia wants to undermine investigations into the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 and told judges at the trial of four suspects that many witnesses fear for their safety.

Prosecutor Thijs Berger made the statement on the second day of the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with the murder of all 298 passengers and crew killed when a missile shot down the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight on July 17, 2014. The suspects weren't present.

Prosecutors allege that a Russian Buk missile shot down the flight from an agricultural field in a region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Moscow rebel forces. Russia denies any involvement in the downing.

Prosecutors revealed that one witness in their case is a Russian volunteer with a separatist rebel group who was close to a crossroads in eastern Ukraine near where a Buk missile was fired on the day flight MH17 was downed.

The witness, identified only as M58, said that people present at the launch site were initially pleased because they were told that a military transport plane had been shot down. However, when the first people returned from the crash site they said that it was a civilian aircraft," prosecutor Dedy Woei-a-Tsoi said.

Berger told judges that there was evidence Russian intelligence agents attempted to hack into the computers of Malaysian and Dutch investigations into the downing of MH17.

This information casts a dark shadow over these proceedings, he said. There are strong indications that the Russian government is very keen to thwart this investigation and that it is not averse to deploying the Russian security services to this end. These Russian security services have been accused of multiple murders in recent years committed in various European countries."